Bomber Dogfight
by CavalierF51D
Summary: A small story about B-29s engaging Tupolev Tu-4 bombers from a rival private military company during a zombie apocalypse in California.


High in the skies was a squadron of ten B-29s belonging to the Jade Mercenaries that took off from Monterey regional airport. They were armed to the teeth with four fifty caliber machine guns on all turrets, bar the tail, where there were twin fifties and a twenty millimeter cannon. The planes getting ready to firebomb the fields south of the city of Gilroy, where there was a massive horde of zombies stumbling towards Gilroy.

Behind the controls of the leading plane was veteran Jade Mercenary, and ex U.S. air force pilot Connor Hernandez. After thirty years of being a B-52 pilot, he decided to revert flying old school bombers; and eventually working up to flying the bomber of his dreams, the B-29 "Superfortress." Even though it was a major downgrade, by two major wars in Korea and Vietnam, and and a world war; Connor didn't even care.

Even though he was happy to be doing what he was doing; he had a serious look on his face, and wanted to get the mission done as quickly as possible.

Looking over at the B-29 next to his portside wing to his eight, he ordered his squadron to increase in throttle; and altitude, before Snegovik mercenaries, a rival PMC flying Tupolev Tu-4 "Bull" bombers arrived to the scene.

Despite Tu-4 was the Soviet Union's unlicensed copy of his plane, Connor still had respect for it, especially its fearsome defensive armament of ten twenty three millimeter autocannons that were more than capable of shredding any plane stupid enough to attack it from behind.

The B-29s were rolling thunder, just like their younger but bigger brother, the B-52 during the Vietnam war.

As he communicated with his squadron, he expected his bombers to return fire if the Snegoviks fired first, and to fire at them with everything they had. He also told them, if the Snegoviks didn't see them to fire first.

He then told all pilots in the squadron to warn their crew members and gunners that their safety wasn't going to be guaranteed, and they might not survive this engagement with sincerity and regards, worried for the other bombers crew members.

Despite there were a total of eighteen fifty cals on each plane, as well as a twenty on the tails, he expected his squadron was in for a vicious beating by the twenty threes of the Tu-4s, and getting crashed into by the vindictive and sociopathic pilots of the Snegovik mercenaries. All he hoped was that him and his squadron would be able to return to base, still intact. He did not have any sort of fighter escort, and was entering enemy territory, closing in on the target, at a speed of over three hundred and fifty miles per hour.

The fields were seen in the distance, and the Tu-4s were seen over the horizon like a stampede of raging bulls in the streets of Spain.

Connor's bombadier opened the bomb bay doors, to which he got ready to drop the bombs. "Bombs away!" Connor's bombadier shouted, as he let loose the first napalm bomb, and let loose them all one by one, watching them fall to the ground, whistling, the other bombadiers in the squadron proceeded to follow him in formation, letting the bombs rain on the zombies; the gunners on each bomber fired at the Tu-4s, which were passing by slowly, surprising them.

The Bulls returned fire, but could only fire back with their tail guns, and rear ventral turrets, while the B-29s fired back, even setting a few of the bulls' engines aflame.

"Take that Russian bias!" Connor's tail gunner hollered, satisfied, seeing that he killed a Tu-4's tail gunner, and lit an engine on fire, with a precise burst of his twenty millimeter cannon, along with his twin fifties.

The B-29s were only slightly damaged, some of them were leaking fuel, but their fuel tanks were sealing quickly.

A tail gunner in the outer rear of the formation spotted the Tu-4s turning around, and chasing after the squadron to retaliate; he warned the pilot of his B-29 "Captain! We got Bulls entering our six ready to stampede us!"

"Roadrunner 464, this is Vortex 329, we got Bulls stampeding for us on our six! They're angry and ready to trample us!"

"Vortex 329, do not worry about it; start firing back, before they get into guns' range, and are able to lock their horns with us."

The tail gunner in Vortex's plane proceeded to fire the twin fifties, and the twenty, aiming at the engines of a Tu-4 that was returning fire at them, causing a flameout in the inner engines on port and starboard wings.

The majority of the B-29s opened fire upon watching Vortex's gunner open fire on the Tu-4s, with their lower rear fuselage gunners, and tail gunners, in an attempt to fend off the angry Bull pilots.

Onboard the bull bomber that was directly behind Connor's bomber was veteran Snegovik mercenary, and ex-Russian airforce pilot Alyosha Morozov. He was wounded by a fifty caliber bullet fired by Connor's tail gunner, and was seeking vengeance against him. He was trying to yell at his gunners to fire more precisely; but was unable to yell at his crew members for long periods of time; because he was in agonizing pain and was also short of breath

He was bleeding; but his bomber was quickly gaining on Connor's bomber. He ordered the two gunners closest to him to fire at the engines of Connor's B-29, to which Connor ordered his tail gunner, and his rear fuselage gunners to fire back at Alyosha's bomber, and fire with everything they had.

A hail of fifty cal, twenty millimeter, and twenty three millimeter bullets were exchanged. Connor's B-29 was taking hits in the fuselage, but since his gunners weren't under as much stress or fatigue and were remaining calm; their shots were precise and accurate, while Alyosha's gunners were constantly missing shots, and were severely fatigued; as well as under stress from Alyosha's constant shouting, as his bomber was taking more and more hits.

Thirty seconds passed by, and Alyosha's bomber was rapidly losing altitude and speed while Connor's bomber was gaining distance, he had to land in the middle of the fields that were firebombed by the Jades. All four engines on Alyosha's bomber were aflame, and were leaking fuel as well as oil and hydraulic fluid, creating thick brown clouds, and the props weren't spinning. It was also riddled with hundreds of fifty caliber bullet holes, and the front windows on it were cracked. He also was unable to lower the landing gear, or his flaps, making this landing complicated and risky, as he was quickly losing stamina to pilot the plane, and there was exactly no room to make any mistakes.

Alyosha's ventral gunners were still firing the twenty threes at Connor's bomber, but their shots were becoming more and more inaccurate, as Connor was gaining distance from Alyosha, tens of feet a second.

His crew were panicking as their wingmen were falling out of the sky and crash landing into the fields below, into hordes of zombies that were supposed to be bombed by them; Alyosha's bomber entered a shallow dive, picking up speed, he was losing altitude, at about one hundred feet per second, he had to circle around the fields, to avoid overshooting them.

"Here we go!" Alyosha hollered, as the bomber crash landed into the field, and its hydraulic mechanisms snapped off, as it slid into the soil, and came to a stop, Alyosha's vision went dark.

He was temporarily knocked unconscious by the harsh impact, as well as his crew, and woke up twelve minutes later. When he woke up; he realized he was the last man alive in his squadron; as his crew members laid still on the floor, unresponsive to Alyosha, and his crew members were killed in the impact. He pushed a large red button in the cockpit, activating a distress signal.

Back in Connor's squadron, the B-29s were heavily damaged, but they were still able to either limp back to Monterey, or head northbound to San Jose International Airport, where the Tunguska Bombushka PMC was stationed.

Because there were gunners and crew members injured severely by the Tu-4's guns, and a few more were in critical condition, Connor decided to change heading to San Jose, where they could be repaired, while his gunners and crew members could have their injuries healed by the medics in the Tunguska Bombushka PMC's station, and then head back to Monterey.

Luckily for Connor, none of the bombers in his wing were shot down in the process; while all of Alyosha's wingmen were either killed in action or shot down. Connor let out a sigh of relief, relieved his squadron successfully overpowered its Russian brethren. Smiling at the thought, Connor commended his wingmen for being brave, and for overpowering the Tu-4s.

"Hoorah!" Connor cheered "This calls for a couple of cold beers when we land in San Jose!"

When the planes were headed to San Jose, there was only a short distance; but there was only two active runways, all ten of the B-29s would have to take turns landing.

On final approach, Connor lowered the throttle on his plane; and brought the nose up, while lowering the landing gear, and the flaps, touching down softly, and applying the brakes, while turning off of the runway and taxied to the terminal where there was space for his plane.

Twenty minutes passed by, and the rest of his B-29 squadron managed to land, and were ready for repair.

Connor lowered the stairs leading into his plane, and entered the airport, to where he was welcomed by the commander of the Tunguska Bombushka's station.


End file.
